CreoPop pen 3D prints aromatic plastic using light

CreoPop delivers the
glow-in-the-dark, sweet smelling, colour-changing, magnetic 3D
printed designs you never knew you wanted. Well, you might not --
but your kids probably do. And that seems to be the market the
Singapore-based company is aiming for.

In a video for the group's Indiegogo campaign (because, well, what 3D printing pen do you
know of that hasn't crowdfunded its way into our hearts?) Andreas
Birnik explains it's nothing like its hotter-than-the-Sun
competitors, in between shots of cute kids drawing with the
oversized tool.

It achieves this, by using photopolymers as ink -- soft,
light-sensitive polymers that solidify when UV light is shone on
them (the light surrounds the pen's nozzle). "There are no hot
parts, no melting plastic and no bad smell," says Birnik. "Changing
ink takes just a few seconds." This all compares to traditional 3D
printing techniques, which the team says uses ABS and PLA plastic
that has a melting point of 250C.

"All of the pens out there melt plastic to dangerously hot
temperatures," says Birnik. "Just think about what would happen if
someone gets melting plastic onto their skin or into their eyes. It
would be really bad."

The team has already smashed its $40,000 (£23,000) funding goal,
raking in more than $85,000 (£50,000) with 24 days left to go. This
means we should see, all going well, the $89 (£52) pens shipping in
early 2015. For that price (the one quoted on Indiegogo, which is
not the promised 2015 price), customers get five ink cartridges.
This is obviously where the cost will rise -- it costs around $3
(£1.70) for a "premium ink" cartridge, and one will reportedly be
enough to draw a 3mm diameter, 14m-long line.

What you draw that with, depends on how much money the team
raises. In the video they tout their magnetic, elastic and aromatic
inks, but none of these will be availble unless the team reaches
$300,000 (£176,000). This means we could be missing out on instant
magnets (with the magnetic ink), body paint, conductive ink and
glittering options, but we will have a rainbow of standard colours,
glow-in-the-dark ink (they recommend making Christmas decorations
with it) and ink that changes colour with temperature.

This is what makes CreoPop a fun and interesting option in a
market that is getting progressively more congested. The Lix pen gives artists and designers an incredible tool for
making anything they can imagine, drawing fines lines in the air
for dramatic effect. But CreoPop means 3D printing in schools and
little makers drawing stretchable clothes for their dolls, that
could then be dotted with LEDs.

If the team manages to raise $100,000 (£58,000), it promises to
bring in different nozzles, and at $500,000 (£290,000) it will ask
the community for their suggestions. "We want to engage with and
learn from our early adopters and community so that we can make
CreoPop even better. We want to introduce new features and new
types of inks after we finish the campaign, and we want to
understand what you as a customer and a CreoPop owner would
want."